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Review Summary

The four men who relate their life stories in “Protagonist,” Jessica Yu’s enthralling documentary exploration of people with obsessive needs for control and self-mastery, are all disillusioned (and extremely articulate) true believers. When they were younger, they were certain they had found the Answer. One embraced terrorism, another crime, a third martial arts and the fourth missionary Christianity as ways of transcending painful, oppressive childhoods that left them with feelings of inadequacy and shame. Ms. Yu, who won the Oscar for best documentary short in 1997 for “Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien,” states in the production notes for this film that her concept was to find people whose real lives mirrored the “tragedy of the extremist” in Euripides. In all four men, the loss of certainty has far-reaching consequences. But “Protagonist” leaves one question unanswered: Why are its subjects all male? — Stephen Holden